Guilty Pleasure

I cannot decide if the guilt outweighs the pleasure.  But seriously, I almost couldn't stop reading the book long enough to write this, even though I'm pretty much at the end.

Remember I wrote about The Naturals, and how it was like Criminal Minds on the WB?  The sequel, Killer Instinct, is maybe better, pleasure-wise, and possibly a little worse, guilt-wise.  Though I think the guilt is just my realizing how well I can encapsulate a description of this book with the title of police procedurals.

Cassie's mother was a female version of The Mentalist, so Cassie has great cold reading skills.  She's been recruited by the FBI to their Naturals program, which is for teenaged prodigy crime solvers.  Agent Briggs (who in my head is played by Agent Coulson, who in real life is played by Clark Gregg).  She joins the team of Sloane, who is essentially Temperance Brennan on a lot of caffeine, and Lia, whose talents are like the guy in that show Lie to Me, plus Michael, who reads emotions, which I'm not quite sure about--maybe Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation?  Anyway, mental casting has him as a young Matt Bomer. The only character who reminds me of a book instead is Dean, whose father was a serial killer (see Dean Koontz's Dark Rivers of the Heart).

Anyway, these kids are picked to live in a house to find out what happens when teenagers stop being polite and start solving crimes.  Their guardian is named Judd and is played in my head by Fred Gwynn.  They are only supposed to work on Cold Cases, but darn it, mysteries just keep finding them.  This time it's personal.

There are the events of the book--the sketchy FBI director's uptight daughter (who has a history with Dean and Briggs) arrives to "evaluate" the program and possibly shut it down; a murder case arises with ties to Dean's father, and the kids, as usual, can't keep their Scooby Gang noses out of the investigation.  The authorities are all "don't you dare even look at this investigation except to answer the pointed questions we ask you and help us whenever we need it, but that's IT!"  And Cassie can't decide if she wants broody Dean or sexy Michael.

I don't know how to describe this book without making it sound like the trashiest book I've ever read.  And it might actually be the trashiest book I ever loved.  But I LOVED it.  I loved it with the part of me that loves Criminal Minds and Bones and The Mentalist, the part of me that doesn't care at all that this is not how murders are solved or how detectives are trained.  The part of me that can't decide if she's on Team Dean or Team Michael, because I love them both!  I love Lia for being bitchy and loyal, and Sloane for being weird.  I love them all, so much.